F1 Notes from Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Makes it Look Easy

Max Verstappen stamped his authority on the 2022 Formula 1 title battle with his fifth victory of the season as Ferrari’s faltering season worsened in Azerbaijan.

Verstappen cruised, winning by 20.8 seconds over runner-up and teammate Sergio Perez. Mercedes' George Russell completed the podium, 45 seconds back. They were the only two challengers within a minute of the leader, as fourth-place Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes was 1 minute, 11 seconds back of the winner.

Meanwhile, pole sitter Charles Leclerc completed just 21 laps before his engine let go.

Verstappen now leads Perez by 21 points in the championship standings. Leclerc, who led the standings through the early part of the season, now trails by 34 points.

Ferrari’s Title Hopes Hang by a Thread

It was riding high in April, shot down in May, but while Frank Sinatra sang about getting back on top in June Ferrari has yet to adhere to that mantra. That’s life, at the moment, for a Ferrari fan.

Ferrari’s strong early form feels a lifetime ago and it now faces an 80-point chasm to Red Bull. Charles Leclerc, who was 46 clear of Verstappen after Australia, is now 34 adrift of the reigning champion.

Carlos Sainz was running a lonely fourth in the first stint, having deliberately conserved his tires, when he suffered a hydraulics issue, removing him from contention.

Leclerc used the virtual safety car phase caused by his team-mate’s failure in order to pit, minimising the time loss, thereby ostensibly adopting a two-stop strategy compared to Red Bull’s expected sole stop. The strategy never got a chance to play out because after 20 laps smoke poured from Leclerc’s F1-75 and for the second time in three Grand Prix he was out.

It marked Ferrari’s first double retirement since 2020 and delivered a crushing blow to their wavering title ambitions. To make matters worse, the failure also moves Leclerc closer to taking a grid penalty for engine changes at some stage this season.

“At the beginning of the first stint on the mediums (tires) we weren’t particularly strong, but towards the end of it, we started catching Checo (Perez),” said Leclerc. “During the Virtual Safety Car, we decided to take the opportunity and pit for Hards, which was the right thing to do. It put us in a position where we could lead the race and what we had to focus on from then on was managing the tires to the end. We then had an issue with the power unit and had to retire. It’s time to go home and reset before Canada. We have to get on top of things and come back stronger there.”

Leclerc still appeared buoyant after his failure in Spain but after the exit in Azerbaijan, which came after the disappointment of Monaco, there was a more downbeat mood.

“This is undoubtedly a bad day,” said boss Mattia Binotto. “Compared to last year, we have made great progress in terms of performance, however there is definitely still room for improvement on the reliability front.”

The only race Ferrari won on Sunday was the paddock pack-down race for Canada.

There are still 14 Grands Prix plus two Sprints (and the bonus points that go with that) left to run in 2022, but the situation has unraveled rapidly for Ferrari. Canada is now a must-win.

Leclerc is F1’s Top Qualifier in '22

A startling Formula 1 statistic is that Charles Leclerc now has more career pole positions than Max Verstappen, despite having 21 fewer wins than the Dutchman.

Leclerc's pole on Saturday in Azerbaijan was his sixth in eight races this season. Verstappen and Sergio Perez have the others. For his career, Leclerc now has 15 poles as compared to Verstappen's 14.

Leclerc’s one-lap performance has always been special, stretching back to his Formula 2 days where he put margins on rivals that were scarcely believable in single-spec machinery. In his rookie year with Sauber he extracted stunning pace from a midfield car, in 2019 with Ferrari he bagged seven poles while in 2020 and 2021 he excelled despite Ferrari’s limitations. Some of the 2020 laps were almost physics-defying.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that he has therefore starred on Saturdays. Baku was a striking example of that. Sitting second after the first runs, with the top four drivers split by under two tenths of a second, Leclerc delivered another stunning lap that put him ahead by almost three-tenths of a second. Corners where Leclerc has maybe struggled during the build-up to Q3 he manages to perfect when it matters.

“Turn 2 I was losing all the time and on my final lap I just released the brakes and prayed that it was okay,” said Leclerc matter-of-factly. It was a precise lap delivered under pressure, just as two events ago in Spain, when he grabbed pole after spinning on his first lap. Leclerc had to dance between the walls during the corner-heavy second sector to compensate for Red Bull’s slight straight-line speed advantage, and he did so.

Leclerc has four poles in a row, six overall from eight in 2022, and his two non-poles were front-row starts.